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berniesrevolution · 6 years ago

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Climate change is a global emergency.

The Amazon rainforest is burning, Greenland’s ice shelf is melting, and the Arctic is on fire. People across the country and the world are already experiencing the deadly consequences of our climate crisis, as extreme weather events like heat waves, wildfires, droughts, floods, and hurricanes upend entire communities, ecosystems, economies, and ways of life, as well as endanger millions of lives. Communities of color, working class people, and the global poor have borne and will bear this burden disproportionately.

The scientific community is telling us in no uncertain terms that we have less than 11 years left to transform our energy system away from fossil fuels to energy efficiency and sustainable energy, if we are going to leave this planet healthy and habitable for ourselves, our children, grandchildren, and future generations. As rising temperatures and extreme weather create health emergencies, drive land loss and displacement, destroy jobs, and threaten livelihoods, we must guarantee health care, housing, and a good-paying job to every American, especially to those who have been historically excluded from economic prosperity.

The scope of the challenge ahead of us shares similarities with the crisis faced by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in the 1940s. Battling a world war on two fronts—both in the East and the West—the United States came together, and within three short years restructured the entire economy in order to win the war and defeat fascism. As president, Bernie Sanders will boldly embrace the moral imperative of addressing the climate crisis and act immediately to mobilize millions of people across the country in support of the Green New Deal. From the Oval Office to the streets, Bernie will generate the political will necessary for a wholesale transformation of our society, with support for frontline and vulnerable communities and massive investments in sustainable energy, energy efficiency, and a transformation of our transportation system.

We need a president who has the courage, the vision, and the record to face down the greed of fossil fuel executives and the billionaire class who stand in the way of climate action. We need a president who welcomes their hatred. Bernie will lead our country to enact the Green New Deal and bring the world together to defeat the existential threat of climate change.

As President, Bernie Sanders Will Avert Climate Catastrophe and Create 20 Million Jobs

As president, Bernie Sanders will launch the decade of the Green New Deal, a ten-year, nationwide mobilization centered around justice and equity during which climate change will be factored into virtually every area of policy, from immigration to trade to foreign policy and beyond. This plan outlines some of the most significant goals we have set and steps we will take during this mobilization, including:

Reaching 100 percent renewable energy for electricity and transportation by no later than 2030 and complete decarbonization by 2050 at latest – consistent with the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change goals – by expanding the existing federal Power Marketing Administrations to build new solar, wind, and geothermal energy sources.

Ending unemployment by creating 20 million jobs needed to solve the climate crisis. These jobs will be good paying, union jobs with strong benefits and safety standards in steel and auto manufacturing, construction, energy efficiency retrofitting, coding and server farms, and renewable power plants. We will also create millions of jobs in sustainable agriculture, engineering, a reimagined and expanded Civilian Conservation Corp, and preserving our public lands.

Directly invest an historic $16.3 trillion public investment toward these efforts, in line with the mobilization of resources made during the New Deal and WWII, but with an explicit choice to include black, indigenous and other minority communities who were systematically excluded in the past.

A just transition for workers. This plan will prioritize the fossil fuel workers who have powered our economy for more than a century and who have too often been neglected by corporations and politicians. We will guarantee five years of a worker’s current salary, housing assistance, job training, health care, pension support, and priority job placement for any displaced worker, as well as early retirement support for those who choose it or can no longer work.

Declaring climate change a national emergency. We must take action to ensure a habitable planet for ourselves, for our children, and for our grandchildren. We will do whatever it takes to defeat the threat of climate change.

Saving American families money by weatherizing homes and lowering energy bills, building affordable and high-quality, modern public transportation, providing grants and trade-in programs for families and small businesses to purchase high-efficiency electric vehicles, and rebuilding our inefficient and crumbling infrastructure, including deploying universal, affordable high-speed internet.

Supporting small family farms by investing in ecologically regenerative and sustainable agriculture. This plan will transform our agricultural system to fight climate change, provide sustainable, local foods, and break the corporate stranglehold on farmers and ranchers.

Justice for frontline communities – especially under-resourced groups, communities of color, Native Americans, people with disabilities, children and the elderly – to recover from, and prepare for, the climate impacts, including through a $40 billion Climate Justice Resiliency Fund. And providing those frontline and fenceline communities a just transition including real jobs, resilient infrastructure, economic development.

Commit to reducing emissions throughout the world, including providing $200 billion to the Green Climate Fund, rejoining the Paris Agreement, and reasserting the United States’ leadership in the global fight against climate change.

Meeting and exceeding our fair share of global emissions reductions. The United States has for over a century spewed carbon pollution emissions into the atmosphere in order to gain economic standing in the world. Therefore, we have an outsized obligation to help less industrialized nations meet their targets while improving quality of life. We will reduce domestic emissions by at least 71 percent by 2030 and reduce emissions among less industrialized nations by 36 percent by 2030 — the total equivalent of reducing our domestic emissions by 161 percent.

Making massive investments in research and development. We will invest in public research to drastically reduce the cost of energy storage, electric vehicles, and make our plastic more sustainable through advanced chemistry.

Expanding the climate justice movement. We will do this by coming together in a truly inclusive movement that prioritizes young people, workers, indigenous peoples, communities of color, and other historically marginalized groups to take on the fossil fuel industry and other polluters to push this over the finish line and lead the globe in solving the climate crisis.

Investing in conservation and public lands to heal our soils, forests, and prairie lands. We will reauthorize and expand the Civilian Conservation Corps and fully fund the Land and Water Conservation Corps to provide good paying jobs building green infrastructure.

This plan will pay for itself over 15 years. Experts have scored the plan and its economic effects. We will pay for the massive investment we need to reverse the climate crisis by:

Making the fossil fuel industry pay for their pollution, through litigation, fees, and taxes, and eliminating federal fossil fuel subsidies.

Generating revenue from the wholesale of energy produced by the regional Power Marketing Authorities. Revenues will be collected from 2023-2035, and after 2035 electricity will be virtually free, aside from operations and maintenance costs.

Scaling back military spending on maintaining global oil dependence.

Collecting new income tax revenue from the 20 million new jobs created by the plan.

Reduced need for federal and state safety net spending due to the creation of millions of good-paying, unionized jobs.

Making the wealthy and large corporations pay their fair share.

The cost of inaction is unacceptable. Economists estimate that if we do not take action, we will lose $34.5 trillion in economic activity by the end of the century. And the benefits are enormous: by taking bold and decisive action, we will save $2.9 trillion over 10 years, $21 trillion over 30 years, and $70.4 trillion over 80 years.

We cannot accomplish any of these goals without taking on the fossil fuel billionaires whose greed lies at the very heart of the climate crisis. These executives have spent hundreds of millions of dollars protecting their profits at the expense of our future, and they will do whatever it takes to squeeze every last penny out of the Earth. Bernie promises to go further than any other presidential candidate in history to end the fossil fuel industry’s greed, including by making the industry pay for its pollution and prosecuting it for the damage it has caused.

And most importantly, we must build an unprecedented grassroots movement that is powerful enough to take them on, and win. Young people, advocates, tribes, cities and states all over this country have already begun this important work, and we will continue to follow their lead.

(Continue Reading)

#politics #the left #bernie sanders #green new deal #progressive #progressive movement #democratic socialism #climate crisis #2020 election

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politijohn · 6 years ago

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Bernie 2020 - Environment

Reach 100% renewable energy for electricity and transportation by no later than 2030 and complete decarbonization by 2050 at latest

End unemployment by creating 20 million jobs needed to solve the climate crisis

Directly invest an historic $16.3 trillion public investment toward these efforts

Ensure a just transition for workers. This plan will prioritize the fossil fuel workers who have powered our economy for more than a century and who have too often been neglected by corporations and politicians. We will guarantee 5 years of a worker’s current salary, housing assistance, job training, health care, pension support, and priority job placement for any displaced worker, as well as early retirement support for those who choose it or can no longer work

Declare climate change a national emergency

Save American families money by weatherizing homes and lowering energy bills, building affordable and high-quality, modern public transportation, providing grants and trade-in programs for families and small businesses to purchase high-efficiency electric vehicles, and rebuilding our inefficient and crumbling infrastructure, including deploying universal, affordable high-speed internet

Support small family farms by investing in ecologically regenerative and sustainable agriculture

Meet and exceed our fair share of global emissions reductions

Make massive investments in research and development

Expand the climate justice movement

Invest in conservation and public lands to heal our soils, forests, and prairie lands. We will reauthorize and expand the Civilian Conservation Corps and fully fund the Land and Water Conservation Corps

This plan will pay for itself over 15 years. Experts have scored the plan and its economic effects. It will be paid by: Making the fossil fuel industry pay for their pollution, through litigation, fees, and taxes, and eliminating federal fossil fuel subsidies. Generating revenue from the wholesale of energy produced by the regional Power Marketing Authorities. Revenues will be collected from 2023-2035, and after 2035 electricity will be virtually free, aside from operations and maintenance costs. Scaling back military spending on maintaining global oil dependence. Collecting new income tax revenue from the 20 million new jobs created by the plan. Reduced need for federal and state safety net spending due to the creation of millions of good-paying, unionized jobs. Making the wealthy and large corporations pay their fair share

Transform our energy system away from fossil fuels to 100 percent energy efficiency and sustainable energy by 2030 at the latest

Build enough renewable energy generation capacity for the nation’s growing needs

End greed in our energy system

Build a modern smart grid

Weatherize homes and businesses to perform energy efficiency upgrades to make buildings more energy efficient and lower energy bills

Electrify homes and businesses

Phase out the use of non-sustainable sources

Regulate all dangerous greenhouse gases

Declare a climate emergency

Fully electrify and decarbonize our transportation sector.

To transition to 100 percent electric vehicles powered with renewable energy instead of expensive fossil fuels, we will institute a Vehicle trade-in program

Create nationwide electric vehicle charging infrastructure

Provide $407 billion in grants for states to help school districts and transit agencies replace all school and transit buses with electric buses.

Replace all shipping trucks

Ensure the decarbonization of the transportation sector

Build public transit that is affordable, accessible, fast, and resilient

Build regional high-speed rail

Retrofit dangerous fossil fuel infrastructure

Grants to purchase a new EV

Dramatically decrease the cost of energy storage

Invest in decarbonizing the shipping and aviation industries as soon as possible

Establish a nationwide materials recycling program

Reassert U.S. leadership in research and engineering by marshaling resources across the federal government and institutions of higher education, including the National Academy of Engineering and National Science Foundation

Invest in the Green Climate Fund

Bring together the leaders of the major industrialized nations with the goal of using the trillions of dollars our nations spend on misguided wars and weapons of mass destruction to instead work together internationally to combat our climate crisis and take on the fossil fuel industry

Rejoin the Paris Climate Agreement and enforce aggressive climate reduction goals

Renegotiate disastrous trade deals to protect the environment

End overseas fossil fuel financing

Create a Climate Justice Resiliency Fund to ensure our infrastructure and communities are protected from the unavoidable impacts of climate change

Rebuild America’s crumbling infrastructure

Repair the nation’s water systems

Build resilient, affordable, publicly owned broadband infrastructure.

Increase funding for roads

Repair freight and passenger transportation networks

Build the 7.4 million affordable housing units to close the affordable housing gap across the country and guarantee safe, decent, accessible affordable housing

Repair and modernize public housing including making all public housing accessible, conducting deep energy retrofits of all public housing, and providing access to high-speed broadband

Retrofit our public infrastructure to withstand climate impacts

Adapt to sea level rise

Protect community cohesion

Increase investments in the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program

Invest in green infrastructure and public lands conservation by reinstating the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC)

Fully fund the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF)

End our National Park maintenance backlog

Make the fossil fuel industry pay for their pollution by: Massively raising taxes on corporate polluters’ and investors’ fossil fuel income and wealth, raising penalties on pollution from fossil fuel energy generation, raise and aggressively enforce penalties., requiring remaining fossil fuel infrastructure owners to buy federal fossil fuel risk bonds to pay for disaster impacts at the local level. Federal risk bonds can then be paid to counties and municipalities when there are fossil fuel spills, explosions, or accidents.

Prosecute and sue the fossil fuel industry for the damage it has caused

Create a National Climate Risk Report

Implement sanctions for corporations that violate our domestic climate goals

End fossil fuel subsidies

Keep fossil fuels on public lands in the ground

Ban offshore drilling

End all new federal fossil fuel infrastructure permits

Require fossil fuel corporations repair leaking infrastructure, including natural gas and oil pipelines and drilling sites

Clean up old and abandoned fossil fuel infrastructure

Ban fracking and mountaintop removal coal mining

Ban imports and exports of fossil fuels

Divest federal pensions from fossil fuels

Pressure financial institutions, universities, insurance corporations, and large institutional investors still invested in or insuring fossil fuels to transition those investments to clean energy bonds through executive action

Place a fee on imported Carbon Pollution-Intensive Goods

Accurately estimate the climate impacts or benefits of all legislation proposed in Congress

Focus the federal government's resources on transitioning to a 100 percent clean energy economy

Require strong labor standards

Provide employers with tax credits to incentivize hiring transitioning employees

Invest in workers and de-industrialized communities' economic development

Provide targeted regional economic development

Infrastructure investments for impacted communities

Ensure an inclusive, comprehensive process from start to finish

Follow Environmental Justice principles

Ensure the full and equal enforcement of all environmental, civil rights, and public health laws and aggressive prosecution of violators.

Ensure that Green New Deal jobs and job training resources are made available to low-income and disadvantaged communities equitably, and ensure equal access to clean energy, electrification, efficiency, and transportation funding, grants, and other incentives

Focus job training and local hiring to reflect the racial and gender diversity of the community receiving federal investments

Update permitting rules that allow polluters to target poor communities for polluting infrastructure

Ensure that all agencies abide by Executive Order 12898, which according to the EPA requires agencies to “identify and address the disproportionately high and adverse human health or environmental effects of their actions on minority and low-income populations, to the greatest extent practicable and permitted by law.”

Extend civil rights protections to ensure full access to the courts for poor and minority communities to seek legal protections by overturning the Sandoval Supreme Court decision that set an unreasonable burden of proof of racism for claims of environmental racism, including disparate and cumulative exposure to environmental health risks

Follow the Principles of Environmental Justice adopted at the First National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit

Ensure that funding from the Green New Deal for parks and public lands are distributed equitably in urban, suburban, and rural areas

Fully survey and track pollution in vulnerable communities

Promote urban sustainability initiatives to improve the environmental and social conditions of low-income neighborhoods and communities of color without rendering those neighborhoods inaccessible for future residents of limited economic means

Ensure the creation and implementation of the Green New Deal is accessible to people with disabilities and non-English speakers

Impacted communities, including Tribes, will receive dedicated grant funding

The first two years of this plan will be spent very aggressively laying down a social safety net to ensure that no one is left behind

Ensure Tribes and Native American people benefit from this plan

Invest in Environmental Justice centered community economic development

Incentivize farmers to develop ecologically regenerative farming systems that sharply reduce emissions; sequester carbon; and heal our soils, forests, and prairie lands

Help farms of all sizes transition to ecologically regenerative agricultural practices that rebuild rural communities, protect the climate, and strengthen the environment with an investment of $410 billion

Pay farmers to keep carbon in the soil

Fund farmland conservation

Transition to organic farming

Bring renewable energy to farms

Enforce the Clear Air and Water Acts on large factory farms and ensure all farmers have access to the tools and resources they need to address pollution

Ensure all rural residents, including farmers, and farmworkers have the right to protect their families and properties from chemical and biological pollution, including pesticide and herbicide drift

Break up big agribusinesses that have a stranglehold on farmers and rural communities

Ensure farmers are paid a fair price for their products with tools like supply management and grain reserves

Re-establish a national grain and feed reserve to help alleviate the need for government subsidies and ensure we have a food supply in case of extreme weather events

Transition toward a parity system to guarantee farmers a living wage

Re-establish and strengthen the Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration

Ensure farmers have the right to repair their own equipment

Reform patent laws to prevent predatory lawsuits from massive agribusinesses like Bayer/Monsanto

Reform the agricultural subsidy system so more money goes to small and medium sized farms

Strengthen organic standards

Invest in historically underserved communities to grow the number of farmers of color

Create a pathway to citizenship for migrant farmworkers and end exclusions for agricultural workers in labor laws

Strengthen outreach to minority and socially disadvantaged farmers

Establish a victory lawns and gardens initiative through a $36 billion investment to help urban, rural, and suburban Americans transform their lawns into food-producing or reforested spaces that sequester carbon and save water

Invest $14.7 billion in cooperatively owned grocery stores

Incentivize schools to procure locally produced foods

Enforce country of origin labeling

Incentivize community ownership of farmland

Issues List

#Bernie 2020 #Bernie Sanders #Climate Change #Politics #Environment #Green New Deal #GND #climate strike

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magesona · 6 years ago

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YO EVERYONE HEY

BERNIE IS RUNNING FOR PRESIDENT AGAIN

REPEAT - BERNIE SANDERS IS RUNNING FOR PRESIDENT IN THE 2020 ELECTIONS

This is the turn of the era everyone, honest to everything holy and whatever you hold dear, i really truly believe this is our opportunity to fix the fucked up shit Trump has been doing, and to lead America and humanity into a more positive and progressive future! This isn’t a petition or asking for a donation (though it will ask after you sign, you don’t have to, but y'know it’d be helpful if you can afford it), Bernie just wants to know and be able to show we’ll all be with him during this campaign!

This is all it takes, for real just sign!! Sign if you’re with this wonderful sweet man who has been screwed by elite class countless times, he wants to and can do so much to help our people, but we have to work together on this!! Believe me, even if the system is corrupt, even if it may not work in the end, it’s worth a shot! I’d say it’s worth the biggest shot we have, don’t let pessimism hold us back! Things have changed over the past few years, we have more of an advantage now with people realizing just how wrong they were to trust the man we’ve put into power. It’s the only way we can fight him and the broken system, TOGETHER!!

https://act.berniesanders.com/signup/em_bern_message/

Below the cut, i’ve included the rest of Bernie’s email. It includes all the promises he’s making for us, explains what we’re up against, and why he thinks we have a chance this time. It’s astounding how many important topics he addresses, universe bless this precious man, please don’t let the system fail him again.

---

I am writing to let you know I have decided to run for president of the United States. I am asking you to join me today as part of an unprecedented and historic grassroots campaign that will begin with at least a million people from across the country.

Please join our campaign for president on day one and commit to doing what it takes to win this election.

Our campaign is not only about defeating Donald Trump, the most dangerous president in modern American history. It is not only about winning the Democratic nomination and the general election.

Our campaign is about transforming our country and creating a government based on the principles of economic, social, racial and environmental justice.

Our campaign is about taking on the powerful special interests that dominate our economic and political life. I’m talking about Wall Street, the health insurance companies, the drug companies, the fossil fuel industry, the military industrial complex, the private prison industry and the large multinational corporations that exert such an enormous influence over our lives.

Our campaign is about redoubling our efforts to end racism, sexism, homophobia, religious bigotry and all forms of discrimination.

Our campaign is about creating a vibrant democracy with the highest voter turnout of any major country while we end voter suppression, Citizens United and outrageous levels of gerrymandering.

Our campaign is about creating a government and economy that work for the many, not just the few. We are the wealthiest nation in the history of the world. We should not have grotesque levels of wealth inequality in which three billionaires own more wealth than the bottom half of the country.

We should not have 30 million Americans without any health insurance, even more who are underinsured and a nation in which life expectancy is actually in decline.

We should not have an economy in which tens of millions of workers earn starvation wages and half of older workers have no savings as they face retirement.

We should not have the highest rate of childhood poverty of almost any major country on Earth and a dysfunctional childcare system which is unfair to both working parents and their children.

We should not have a regressive tax system in which large, profitable corporations like Amazon pay nothing in federal income taxes.

Make no mistake about it. The powerful special interests in this country have unbelievable power and they want to maintain the status quo. They have unlimited amounts of money to spend on campaigns and lobbying and have huge influence over the media and political parties.

The only way we will win this election and create a government and economy that work for all is with a grassroots movement – the likes of which has never been seen in American history.

They may have the money and power. We have the people. That is why we need one million Americans who will commit themselves to this campaign.

Stand with me as we fight to win the Democratic nomination and the general election. Add your name to join this campaign and say you are willing to do the hard work necessary to transform our country.

You know as well as I do that we are living in a pivotal and dangerous moment in American history. We are running against a president who is a pathological liar, a fraud, a racist, a sexist, a xenophobe and someone who is undermining American democracy as he leads us in an authoritarian direction.

I’m running for president because, now more than ever, we need leadership that brings us together – not divides us up. Women and men, black, white, Latino, Native American, Asian American, gay and straight, young and old, native born and immigrant. Now is the time for us to stand together.

I’m running for president because we need leadership that will fight for working families and the shrinking middle class, not just the 1 percent. We need a president who understands that we can create millions of good-paying jobs, rebuild our crumbling infrastructure and construct the affordable housing we desperately need.

I’m running for president because we need trade policies that reflect the interests of workers and not multi-national corporations. We need to raise the minimum wage to a living wage, provide pay equity for women and guarantee all workers paid family and medical leave.

I’m running for president because we need to understand that artificial intelligence and robotics must benefit the needs of workers, not just corporate America and those who own that technology.

I’m running for president because a great nation is judged not by how many billionaires and nuclear weapons it has, but by how it treats the most vulnerable – the elderly, the children, our veterans, the sick and the poor.

I’m running for president because we need to make policy decisions based on science, not politics. We need a president who understands that climate change is real, is an existential threat to our country and the entire planet, and that we can generate massive job creation by transforming our energy system away from fossil fuels to energy efficiency and sustainable energy.

I’m running for president because the time is long overdue for the United States to join every other major country on Earth and guarantee health care to all people as a right, not a privilege, through a Medicare-for-all program.

I’m running for president because we need to take on the outrageous level of greed of the pharmaceutical industry and lower prescription drug prices in this country.

I’m running for president because we need to have the best educated workforce in the world. It is totally counterproductive for our future that millions of Americans are carrying outrageous levels of student debt, while many others cannot afford the high cost of higher education. That is why we need to make public colleges and universities tuition free and lower student debt.

I’m running for president because we must defend a woman’s right to control her own body against massive political attacks taking place at the local, state and federal level.

I’m running for president because we need real criminal justice reform. We need to invest in jobs and education for our kids, not more jails and incarceration. We need to end the destructive “war on drugs,” eliminate private prisons and cash bail and bring about major police department reform.

I’m running for president because we need to end the demonization of undocumented immigrants in this country and move to comprehensive immigration reform. We need to provide immediate legal status for the young people eligible for the DACA program and develop a humane policy for those at the border who seek asylum.

I’m running for president because we must end the epidemic of gun violence in this country. We need to take on the NRA, expand background checks, end the gun show loophole and ban the sale and distribution of assault weapons.

I’m running for president because we need a foreign policy which focuses on democracy, human rights, diplomacy and world peace. The United States must lead the world in improving international cooperation in the fight against climate change, militarism, authoritarianism and global wealth inequality.

That is why we need at least a million people to join our campaign and help lead the movement that can accomplish these goals. Add your name to say we’re in this together.

Needless to say, there is a lot of frightening and bad news in this world. Now, let me give you some very good news.

Three years ago, during our 2016 campaign, when we brought forth our progressive agenda we were told that our ideas were “radical” and “extreme.” We were told that Medicare for All, a $15 an hour minimum wage, free tuition at public colleges and universities, aggressively combating climate change, demanding that the wealthy start paying their fair share of taxes, were all concepts that the American people would never accept.

Well, three years have come and gone. And, as result of millions of Americans standing up and fighting back, all of these policies and more are now supported by a majority of Americans.

Together, you and I and our 2016 campaign began the political revolution. Now, it is time to complete that revolution and implement the vision that we fought for.

So here is my question for you:

Will you stand with me as part of a million person grassroots movement which can not only win the Democratic primary, not only win the general election, but most importantly help transform this country so that, finally, we have a government that works for all of us and not just the few? Add your name to say you will.

Together we can create a nation that leads the world in the struggle for peace and for economic, racial, social and environmental justice.

And together we can defeat Donald Trump and repair the damage he has done to our country.

Brothers and sisters, if we stand together, there is no limit to what we can accomplish.

I hope you will join me.

Thank you very much.

In solidarity,

Bernie Sanders

#bernie sanders #bernie 2020

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uk-news-talking-politics · 6 years ago

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Tackling the climate crisis: The questions politicians must answer

By Jonathan Bartley

As awareness of the ecological and climate crises we face grows, political parties are increasingly trying to highlight their green credentials. But we need to hold them to a high standard, to see how serious they really are about tackling the emergency. These are the questions we need to ask them.

Will you end fossil fuel subsidies?

In an economy that has been built on the dominance of oil, fossil fuel subsidies are the viruses that infect every area and stunt the urgent transition we desperately need.

The UK spends £10.5 billion a year supporting fossil fuels - more than any other country in the European Union. But while parties talk a good game about investing in renewable energy, they don't tend to embrace the need to simultaneously end our unhealthy addiction to dirty energy. They support new coal mines and continue to subsidise energy which pumps lethal carbon into the atmosphere - sometimes even wearing it as a badge of honour.

Ending these massive subsidies would provide the additional investment we desperately need for the green energy revolution. But perhaps more importantly only by removing these subsidies can we actually transition the economy in the way that is needed - for example by ending the tax exemption on aviation fuel to stem the growth in destructive flights, as well as ensuring that fossil fuels are kept in the ground. It is only by ending the subsidies that we can also make the transition in the timescale that is required to meet what is now acknowledged as a climate emergency.

Any party that is serious about tackling the climate chaos must put ending these subsidies as the top priority.

Will you stop airport expansion?

It is no good opposing Heathrow expansion if you are then going to support expansion of Gatwick instead, or for that matter Manchester, Bristol or any other airport. Seventy per cent of flights are taken by just 15% of people. What we need instead of expansion is the political will to introduce a Frequent Flier Levy that tackles the insatiable aviation demand of the super-rich.

The current government believes that it can get away with expanding airports, because it has continually refused to include emissions from international aviation in its plans to reduce carbon. That must change. And we must be realistic about the carbon for which we are responsible. Expanding airports isn't something that happens in isolation to the rest of the world. It has the potential to trigger an aviation arms race, with other countries competing to expand their airports too. To show global leadership, we must lead by example.

Will you stop road building?

Of course every time you expand an airport, a whole load of extra roads tend to come with it - as we are seeing with destructive plans for Heathrow. But we must halt the road building programme completely - whether that be the expansion of motorways or the mayor of London's Silvertown Tunnel.

More roads lead directly to more pollution and worsening air quality. As we announced on the eve of our conference in Newport, we would allocate proceeds of the Vehicle Exercise Duty (VED) that are currently earmarked for roads (£6.5 billion a year) towards free bus travel. In this way we would strengthen a key principle of a Green New Deal: the idea that to decarbonise our economy, green public transport must be incentivised and radically expanded. This in turn will reduce the number of vehicles on our roads and help reduce the air pollution, the silent killer of 40,000 Britons a year.

At present other parties believe they can address the carbon and pollution crisis by simply replacing gas guzzlers with electric vehicles. The truth is that we need to think completely differently about how we move around.

Manufacturing a battery powered electric passenger car alone emits between 6 and 16 tonnes of C02. And electric vehicles may emit no CO2 but they produce small particle pollution from brake discs and tyres and by throwing up dust from roads. A 2017 European Commission research paper found that about half of all particulate matter comes from these sources.

Privately owned cars are in use for just four per cent of the time. They spend the other 96% of their time parked. They are a huge waste of resource at a time when we must do more with less.

Whether it's car clubs, or a public transport revolution, we must think in new ways about transport for the future.

Will you knock HS2 on the head?

No party that is serious about tackling global heating can support HS2. This act of environmental vandalism would threaten the water supply, divert rivers, concrete over vast areas of countryside and destroy biodiversity - including over 60 ancient woodlands and all at a time where there is a growing recognition of the fundamental links between the ecological and climate crises. The head of HS2 himself has admitted it would not be carbon neutral for over 120 years. We need to be carbon neutral in just ten.

If we are going to have the local transport revolution that will give people the option to get out of their cars for the school run, the shopping trip and the commute, we need to scrap HS2 and invest the money in other infrastructure. That's how we fund it.

The cost of HS2 is eye watering. It is now on course to hit £88bn. The tens of billions would be far better spent in electrifying existing railways, putting in new lines, and updating our aged rail infrastructure right around the country - as well as putting in new bus routes and services to serve every community, however remote.

This transport revolution is particularly vital if we are to get the benefits of a renewable-energy driven 'blue new deal' for coastal communities. Simply expanding offshore renewables will not on its own bring the transformation that we need without the transport infrastructure to go with it.

Will you end nuclear weapons and nuclear power?

The New Economics Foundation estimates that we could generate over six times our annual electricity needs from offshore renewables. And with the advent of tidal power and new storage technology, as the former head of the national grid has said, the old, tired argument about needing big power stations should be consigned to the past.

It is anachronistic to still speak of a role for nuclear power. Continuing to invest in the white elephant of Hinkley Point C and similar projects means not realising the possibilities that renewable energy are offering us. It means adopting 20th Century solutions to 21st Century problems.

It's also far more expensive. Wind power is already now less than half the cost of the terrible deal that we are being locked into with nuclear power at Hinkley C - which is still years away from completion. Coupled with the security risks, the length of time it takes to build new nuclear, and the environmental costs of mining uranium to fuel it, it is hard to see any argument for continuing with this outdated approach. Indeed, it seems the only reason the big parties are wedded to it is because it provides a subsidy through our energy bills for renewing the nuclear weapons that these same parties are also committed to.

The measures above would save hundreds of billions over the next ten years - money which can be ploughed into the real transformation that we urgently need to see.

And these are only some of the questions that every party that is serious about tackling climate chaos must answer. Alongside them, is the urgent need to tackle the ecological crisis and put in place all those policies needed to reverse the decline in nature biodiversity. We need transformation of agriculture to return it to its pre factory-farming state, mass rewilding and reforestation. The incentives to move away from meat-based diets. We need a fossil free politics, where oil companies and airport expanders aren't trying to buy influence.

We need reform of the tax system so we embrace repair and reuse, and penalise planned obsolescence. An economy based on limitless growth has created a vicious cycle of production and consumption – with more and more being created for the sake of it, destined not to bring lasting enjoyment or use but to be ploughed into landfill and thrown into our oceans.

A Green New Deal isn't just about a massive investment in renewable energy, it is about recognising that every sector of the economy needs to change, as well as the way we live and the way we work. There can be no more business as usual. And that means that new choices must be made.

We cannot go on with the same thinking that has brought us to the brink of catastrophe. The situation is urgent and as the IPCC has made clear, we have just ten years to complete the transformation that needs to take place. This is no time for gimmicks. We must act boldly and radically. The time is now.

#climate change

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96thdayofrage · 7 years ago

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https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/11/29/sorry-democrats-the-green-party-came-up-with-the-green-new-deal/

This week progressives nationwide are talking about a Green New Deal and, while mainstream media is saying that insurgent Democrats came up with this, we beg to differ! We applaud the efforts of Democrats for finally adopting what the Global Greens began to work on in in 2006 while noting that the delay of 12 years is very significant when it comes to climate change.

The Green Party has been advocating for a massive jobs and public works program to transition our energy infrastructure rapidly over to renewable energy for more than a decade [1]. The project truly began with a Global Greens ‘Green New Deal Task Force’, first formulated in 2006. It was brought into American Green political campaigns by Howie Hawkins when he ran for governor in 2014 [2]. Next Jill Stein and Ajamu Baraka highlighted it in their 2016 presidential campaign [3] while many more American Green candidates have run campaigns using it since that time.

Our Green New Deal is formulated as a transitional set of demands in a Four Point program with the understanding that fundamental structural change, moving our society away from the inhumane, imperial logic of a capitalist market system and towards a radical democratic reconfiguration of forces in the United States, is the only way that a popular program for change can occur.

Unlike the model advocated by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez [4], the Green Party proposal emphasizes public programs, not those created by Wall Street. It calls for a transformational change in energy production as well as the structure of the economy based in grassroots democracy.

READ OUR GREEN NEW DEAL PROPOSAL! [1]

(READ THE FULL LANGUAGE VERSION) [5]

We are in an ecological and economic emergency that requires fundamental system change. In 2016 our party officially adopted ecosocialism to create a truly equitable ecological economy and grassroots democracy with an intersectional lens to properly encounter this challenge. Our platform now reads:

The Green Party seeks to build an alternative economic system based on ecology and decentralization of power, an alternative that rejects both the capitalist system that maintains private ownership over almost all production as well as the state-socialist system that assumes control over industries without democratic, local decision making. We believe the old models of capitalism (private ownership of production) and state socialism (state ownership of production) are not ecologically sound, socially just, or democratic and that both contain built-in structures that advance injustices.

Instead we will build an economy based on large-scale green public works, municipalization, and workplace and community democracy. Some call this decentralized system ‘ecological socialism,’ ‘communalism,’ or the ‘cooperative commonwealth,’ but whatever the terminology, we believe it will help end labor exploitation, environmental exploitation, and racial, gender, and wealth inequality and bring about economic and social justice due to the positive effects of democratic decision making.

Production is best for people and planet when democratically owned and operated by those who do the work and those most affected by production decisions. This model of worker and community empowerment will ensure that decisions that greatly affect our lives are made in the interests of our communities, not at the whim of centralized power structures of state administrators or of capitalist CEOs and distant boards of directors. Small, democratically run enterprises, when embedded in and accountable to our communities, will make more ecologically sound decisions in materials sourcing, waste disposal, recycling, reuse, and more. Democratic, diverse ownership of production would decentralize power in the workplace, which would in turn decentralize economic power more broadly.

The American financial system is deeply connected to the multinational fossil fuel industry in ways that go well beyond the realm of what is attainable within the Democratic Party without a third party movement creating external grassroots pressure on elected officials. For instance, the American dollar is linked to the Saudi Arabian oil barrel via a process known as petrodollar recycling [6], a complex system that came into existence when America went off the gold standard in the 1970s. Taking the American dollar out of this system will be a complicated and intricate process that would fundamentally dismantle much of the economic landscape that we occupy currently. When we say we need system change, we mean it and this is part of the reason why.

Neither of the duopoly parties will take on this challenge without an external pressure being created by a third party because it is in their vested material interests not to do so. As Saudi Arabia continues to be a feature of the news cycle in relation to the war on Yemen and the brutal killing of reporter Jamal Khashoggi, we regretfully keep this aspect of American political economy in mind and see it as an insurance policy that will maintain the security of the Saudi royal family regardless of humanitarian protests.

Historically, third parties have always been the location that progressive political projects have been incubated within before the mainstream has been forced to adopt them. As example, consider single payer healthcare. Ralph Nader had this as part of his agenda in the 2000 presidential campaign and it has been part of the Green Party US platform since then. Every year since this 25,000 to 30,000 people have died because they do not have access to healthcare, i.e. do not have insurance. The lack of access to healthcare is an urgent national crisis. The Democrats are finally catching on to this as well, with 123 Democrats co-sponsoring the Expanded and Improved Medicare for All Act, HR676, which is a superior bill to the compromised one being proposed by Sen. Bernie Sanders. The sooner HR676 becomes law, the sooner people will stop dying.

We hope the wider public will take other parts of the Green agenda as well and make them materialize in policy and action. Green candidates have been calling for a 50% reduction in the budget of the Pentagon, the world’s largest polluter [7], since the beginning of this century while the duopoly has expanded military spending now to 64% of the Federal Discretionary Spending budget. We also opposed the Iraq, Afghanistan, Libyan and Syrian wars.

On November 29, 2018, a delegation led by the Green Party went to the International Criminal Court to urge a full investigation of crimes by Israel, against Palestinians (read about the Green Party US’s letter to the International Criminal Court outlining the history of the Israeli occupation of Palestine and requesting that alleged war crimes by Israel that have been reported since June 2014 be investigated by the ICC [7]), and a foreign policy of diplomacy as opposed to militarist interventionism.

The duopoly War On Terror has cost the United States $6 trillion at a time when our infrastructure is failing and we need to invest in a transition to a clean energy economy. Neither the Democrats or Republicans are willing to cut the military budget or end foreign policy based on militarism.

Even while some Democrats are taking on some of our issues, we do not expect either party to adopt a Green New Deal, Improved Medicare for All or seriously curtail militarist policy unless they are pressured by a grassroots movement and by a third party that gains political support.

Notes.

1. http://www.gp.org/green_new_deal

2. http://www.howiehawkins.com/2014/platform.html#gnd

3. https://www.jill2016.com/greennewdeal

4. https://popularresistance.org/the-political-fraud-of-alexandria-ocasio-cortezs-green-new-deal/

5. http://www.gp.org/gnd_full

6. https://www.investopedia.com/articles/forex/072915/how-petrodollars-affect-us-dollar.asp

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berniesrevolution · 6 years ago

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Brothers and Sisters–

I am writing to let you know I have decided to run for president of the United States. I am asking you today to join me as part of an unprecedented and historic grassroots campaign that will begin with at least a million people from across the country.

Please join our campaign for president on day one and commit to doing what it takes to win this election.

Our campaign is not only about defeating Donald Trump, the most dangerous president in modern American history. It is not only about winning the Democratic nomination and the general election.

Our campaign is about transforming our country and creating a government based on the principles of economic, social, racial and environmental justice.

Our campaign is about taking on the powerful special interests that dominate our economic and political life. I’m talking about Wall Street, the health insurance companies, the drug companies, the fossil fuel industry, the military-industrial complex, the private-prison industry and the large multi-national corporations that exert such an enormous influence over our lives.

Our campaign is about redoubling our efforts to end racism, sexism, homophobia, religious bigotry and all forms of discrimination.

Our campaign is about creating a vibrant democracy with the highest voter turnout of any major country while we end voter suppression, Citizens United and outrageous levels of gerrymandering.

Our campaign is about creating a government and economy that works for the many, not just the few. We are the wealthiest nation in the history of the world. We should not have grotesque levels of wealth inequality in which three billionaires own more wealth than the bottom half of the country.

We should not have 30 million Americans without any health insurance, even more who are under-insured and a nation in which life expectancy is actually in decline.

We should not have an economy in which tens of millions of workers earn starvation wages and half of older workers have no savings as they face retirement.

We should not have the highest rate of childhood poverty of almost any major country on Earth and a dysfunctional childcare system which is unfair to both working parents and their children.

We should not have a regressive tax system in which large, profitable corporations like Amazon pay nothing in federal income taxes.

The only way we will win this election and create a government and economy that works for all is with a grassroots movement – the likes of which has never been seen in American history.

They may have the money and power. We have the people. That is why we need one million Americans who will commit themselves to this campaign.

I’m running for president because we need to understand that artificial intelligence and robotics must benefit the needs of workers, not just corporate America and those who own that technology.

I’m running for president because we need to take on the outrageous level of greed of the pharmaceutical industry and lower prescription drug prices in this country.

I’m running for president because we need to have the best educated workforce in the world. It is totally counter-productive for our future that millions of Americans are carrying outrageous levels of student debt, while many others cannot afford the high cost of higher education. That is why we need to make public colleges and universities tuition free and lower student debt.

I’m running for president because we must defend a woman’s right to control her own body against massive political attacks taking place at the local state and federal level.

That is why we need at least a million people to join our campaign and help lead the movement that can accomplish these goals. Add your name to say we’re in this together.

Needless to say, there is a lot of frightening and bad news in this world. Now, let me give you some very good news.

Three years ago, during our 2016 campaign, when we brought forth our progressive agenda we were told that our ideas were “radical,” and “extreme.” We were told that Medicare for All, a $15 an hour minimum wage, free tuition at public colleges and universities, aggressively combating climate change, demanding that the wealthy start paying their fair share of taxes, were all of concepts that the American people would never accept.

Well, three years have come and gone. And, as result of millions of Americans standing up and fighting back, all of these policies and more are now supported by a majority of Americans.

Together, you and I and our 2016 campaign began the political revolution. Now, it is time to complete that revolution and implement the vision that we fought for.

So here is my question for you:

Will you stand with me as part of a million person grassroots movement which can not only win the Democratic primary, not only win the general election but most importantly help transform this country so that, finally, we have a government that works for all of us and not just the few? Add your name to say you will.

Together we can create a nation that leads the world in the struggle for peace and for economic, racial, social and environmental justice.

And together we can defeat Donald Trump and repair the damage he has done to our country.

Brothers and sisters, if we stand together, there is no limit to what we can accomplish.

I hope you will join me.

Thank you very much.

In solidarity,

Bernie Sanders

#Bernie Sanders

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